Dr. Jeannine Jordan, Concert Organist

Posts tagged ‘organ concerts’

What a splendid afternoon! We so enjoyed sharing our newest organ and multi-media concert experience, Around the World in 80 Minutes, with a full house at our West Coast Introduction on Sunday, January 29th at Nestucca Valley Presbyterian Church in Pacific City, Oregon. The audience was fascinated with the wide diversity of the music of the world enhanced with stunning visuals and live camera feeds. The official World-Premiere of this concert will take place in Wooster, Ohio as part of the fifth anniversary of the Music on Market Concert Series. We invite you to visit our website, www.aroundtheworldin80minutes.org to catch the excitement of this new concert.

Jeannine and David Jordan had the privilege of presenting their organ and multi-media concert experience, From Sea to Shining Sea, to a variety of audiences in Des Peres (St. Louis), Missouri; Moorestown, New Jersey; and Akron and Athens, Ohio.

Invited for a return concert engagement following an audience-winning performance of the organ and multi-media concert, Bach and Sons, the Jordans returned with From Sea to Shining Sea to the Music at St. Paul’s Concert Series at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Des Peres, Missouri and to the First United Methodist Church of Moorestown, New Jersey where the concert was sponsored by an anonymous donor and the Southwest New Jersey AGO Chapter.

The Akron Chapter of the AGO and The Parish Arts Series of Fairlawn Lutheran Church in Akron were co-sponsors of the first concert in Ohio. The spring concluded with a performance on the Organ Recital Series at The First Presbyterian Church of Athens. Fifty high school students attended this concert – and for many, experienced a pipe organ for the first time – as part of the University of Ohio Summer Band Camp. What a thrill it was to share the organ with these young musicians.

Following each of these concerts, it was the desire of the hosting organizations to include a second and even third performance by the Jordans of their unique live organ and multi-media concerts in an upcoming season. Visit www.bachandsons.com, www.fromseatoshiningsea.net or www.aroundtheworldin80minutes.org to discover why you’ll want to bring one of these unique concert experiences to your sophisticated audience in the coming season. To schedule a performance of Bach and Sons, From Sea to Shining Sea or the Jordan’s newest organ and multi-media concert experience, Around the World in 80 Minutes, contact Dr. Jeannine Jordan at 541-905-0108 or jeannine@promotionmusic.org.

What? I am serious. Yes, I know, I know. Maybe things are fine the way they are and that’s nice, congratulations. Don’t break it if it doesn’t need fixing. But if you do want to take a step up a level or make some changes, here are a few tools that can help you get to where you might want to go.

You don’t have to change your life, just change your day.

Every day we come to, yes, a fork in the road. Like Yogi Berra said: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” We come to many “fork-in-the-road” moments every day. And we take the fork — sometimes without even thinking about it. The question is, did you want to take the fork you’re on?

A. You’ve got to want it more than you don’t want it.

We may not like the fork we took, but to choose not to take it again, you’ve got to want X more than you don’t want Y. When you come to a fork in the road, take the one you really want.

Everything will exact a certain price from you—energy, effort, patience, resources. Remember, doing nothing will also exact a price from you. There’s a difference between; “We are going to keep going until we have a predictably great program” to “Hmm… that was unpleasant.”

What do you think you want to get serious(er) about?__________________________

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Excerpted from David Jordan’s article, Five Things You Can Do to Breathe New Life Into Your Program. Printed with permission from Pro-Motion Music LLC. David Jordan, media artist, and his wife Dr. Jeannine Jordan, concert organist are the creators and performers of the live organ and multi-media concert experiences, Bach and Sons, From Sea to Shining Sea, and Around the World in 80 Minutes.

A continuation of the Pro-Motion Music newsletter interview with Michael Barone, senior executive producer of PIPEDREAMS.

Jeannine:You are now the host and senior executive producer of PIPEDREAMS, the only nationally distributed weekly radio program exploring the art of the pipe organ. Was PIPEDREAMS your concept/idea? Mr. Barone: PIPEDREAMS was my idea, growing out of the recordings we made (during my tenure as Music Director) of the 1980 AGO Convention in Minnesota, and building on the MPR tradition of Sunday night broadcasts of THE ORGAN PROGRAM which I had initiated by 1970. National distribution by satellite (as opposed to the previous analog-tapes-in-the-mail) made the process relatively uncomplicated, and a ‘sample series’ was broadcast January-March 1982. Reaction was sufficiently positive, and access to future national AGO convention activities, my own growing collection of locally-recorded organ concerts, and the organ-music offerings of the European Broadcasting Union gave me hope that an ongoing, continuous presence for organ music on public radio could be sustained, and PIPEDREAMS returned as a regular, full-time weekly presence in October 1983, and has been chugging along ever since.

Jeannine: How/where did PIPEDREAMS begin?Mr. Barone: I should give credit where it is due. My manager at MPR in the 1980s was a gentleman named Nicholas D. Nash. When I presented my notion of a special series of national broadcasts derived from the 1980 convention materials, he queried: “What will you call your series?” I had not thought that far ahead, but it would seem that he had, as in the moment of my indecisive pause he suggested, “Why not call your program PIPEDREAMS?” And that was that. Additionally, since I came to him with my idea after the budget for the fiscal year had been set, no money was available to pay the satellite uplink distribution charges. But Nick’s brother-in-law happened to be an organ buff, and Nick put in a phone call to his sister, achieving what has turned out to be the continuous, and most generous, support of Mr. and Mrs. Wesley C. Dudley (whose beneficent encouragement of organ-related projects is by no means limited to PIPEDREAMS).

Jeannine:What were some mileposts along the way for the program?Mr. Barone: Being invited to cover (as, as it turned out, the only broadcast media representative from the USA) the Calgary International Organ Festival during the several years of its presence, and the Canadian International Organ Competition which succeeded it.
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Dr. Jeannine Jordan, concert organist with her husband David, are the creators and performers of Bach and Sons, From Sea to Shining Sea, and Around the World in 80 Minutes— live organ concerts with multi-media.

Jeannine: As President of the ECS Publishing Group, you oversee the publishing activities for E.C. Schirmer, Galaxy Music Corporation, and MorningStar Music Publishers. Each company represents publications that are known for excellence! Excellence in compositions, composers represented, and published format.

How is each publisher different/the same?

What genre of music is published by each?

Who is the audience of each? Church musician, organist, pianist, choral director, school director?

Representative composers of each?

New 2016 releases?

Mr. Lawson: In 1985 ECS acquired Galaxy Music Corporation, a New York company founded in 1930. The Galaxy Music Corporation had a strong connection to the New York music scene as well as strong European ties. This acquisition added names such as K.K. Davis, Robert Ward, and brought in many works by Holst, Vaughan Williams, Herbert Howells and Sibelius. Galaxy was very active in the publishing of Opera, Piano, Vocal, Chamber, and Choral music and included such great works as “The Crucible” by Robert Ward and owned the U.S. rights to the “Sea Symphony,” “London Symphony” and “Five Mystical Songs” by Vaughan Williams.

We are often asked if this is seen as a merger of these companies, and we try to explain that only the back office and warehousing functions have been merged. We keep the editorial staff functioning quite independently from each other.

This interview originally appeared in the April 2016 issue of the Pro-Motion Music e-newsletter. To read the entire interview visit www.promotionmusic.org. Dr. Jeannine Jordan, concert organist, is the co-owner of Pro-Motion Music LLC with her husband, David Jordan, media-artist. Together they are the creators and performers of the organ and multi-media concert experiences, Around the World in 80 Minutes, Bach and Sons, and From Sea to Shining Sea.

The month of April encompasses four of the Sundays of Eastertide. The music and hymnody for these services will reflect the glory of the risen Christ. The Episcopal hymnal includes a wondrous plethora of Easter hymns, 39 to be exact. Some of that Easter hymnody includes:

Hail thee, festival day! #175
this ancient processional hymn is derived from a sixth-century Latin poem that was handed down through the middle Ages. Though it has been adapted for nearly every feast in the church calendar, modern versions are usually customized for Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. (www.hymnary.com)

O sons and daughters, let us sing! #203
Not very many Easter hymns focus on the disciples’ response to the astounding story that their beloved Master, Jesus Christ, was no longer dead but alive. This old hymn from France tells just that story. (www.hymnary.com)

Good Christians all, rejoice and sing! #205
not all dreams are equal: the fourteenth century mystic Heinrich Susa claimed that in one of his ecstatic visions, he danced with the angels while they sang this hymn. That’s a bit more exciting than a daydream about getting out of class early. (www.hymnary.com)

The day of resurrection! #210
this eighth-century hymn of celebration was traditionally sung at midnight on Easter in the Greek Church. (www.hymnary.com)

To learn more of the hymns of the church, visit www.hymnary.com.
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Dr. Jeannine Jordan is a church musician and concert organist. She and her husband David are the creators and performers of three organ and multi-media concert experiences, Around the World in 80 Minutes, From Sea to Shining Sea, and Bach and Sons.

verb
Fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

Affect, animate, arouse, cause, embolden, excite, galvanize, impress

in·spired

inˈspī(ə)rd/

adjective

Of extraordinary quality, as if arising from some external creative impulse.

“They had to thank the choir for the inspired singing”

Activated,animated,encouraged,energized,exhilarated, influenced

motivated, moved

Inspired

“I just can’t listen to any more Wagner, you know…I’m starting to get the urge to conquer Poland.” Woody Allen

Okay, I don’t know if that’s the inspiration we are looking for in our music, but it is inspiration. We often find ourselves in one of two positions, that of needing to inspire or that of needing to be inspired.

Sometimes our effort of inspiring leaves us depleted and feeling that inspiration has left us forever. Rejoice, it hasn’t. Those are the times we need to let our souls, minds, and heart rest and get an infilling of inspiration ourselves.

“Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration,

if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.” Igor Stravinsky

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” Victor Hugo

We as musicians have been given such a tremendous gift. So many people truly need what we have for them. Sometimes we forget that. Even when we might not feel inspired there are people we need to inspire. We look outward for inspiration but we have it in our hands, feet, head, and most of all in our own hearts.

With the tremendous gift we have been given, we have an obligation to inspire others and remember to allow ourselves to be inspired. Sometimes we are amazed at the sounds that emanate from that most magnificent of instruments on which we work, and are taken aback that we helped create that sound that is beyond words.

“Music . . . can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.”Leonard Bernstein

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Excerpted from an article by David Jordan, media artist, published in the March 2016 issue of the Pro-Motion Music e-newsletter. Mr. Jordan and his wife, concert organist Jeannine Jordan, are the creators and performers of three unique audience-engaging multi-media concert experiences, Bach and Sons, From Sea to Shining Sea, and Around the World in 80 Minutes. Contact Jeannine at jeannine@promotionmusic.org to learn more of these unique events.